Retargeting Ads

What are Retargeting Ads and how do they work?

Retargeting ads, also known as remarketing ads are an invention of programmatic display marketing and come about when you’ve shopped or browsed a certain brand or product online without converting—whatever that means for the specific thing you were looking at (signing up, purchasing, etc). Retargeting ads serve people who have abandoned their carts on a website, shown an interest in a certain category of goods, or searched for a particular brand. Studies have shown that only about 2% of users convert on their first visit to a site or when looking at a certain item, so what about the other 98% of users? They usually need a bit more time, nudging, or information—all of which comes from your retargeting ads!

How do Retargeting Ads Work?

Retargeting ads are based on implanted bits of web code called pixels that drop anonymous browser cookies every time a new user visits your site. Pixels don’t collect personal information and they don’t slow down your site or affect your rankings; they simply aid in making sure your retargeting efforts land with the appropriate audience and serve ads that are interesting and relevant to the user. As users continue on in their digital journeys, these cookies send signals that alert ad servers to send the proper retargeting ads only to the people who have previously visited your site.

Should I be using Retargeting Ads? 

There is a multitude of good reasons why you may include these in your marketing plan. The main, maybe most obvious reason is what drives the internet’s advertising more and more: personalization. Customers are exponentially more likely to convert or purchase when they feel that a brand knows them, their needs, and is readily offering a product to fill that need. Retargeting ads fulfill two main purposes: maintaining awareness and driving conversions. What better way to do this than with other, extra, added information about that certain product that a cspecific user was looking at!?

In fact, if you ask Single Grain,  71% of consumers prefer ads that speak to their individual interests and are twice as likely to click on an ad, even from an unknown brand, if it’s personalized. That’s a pretty undeniable stat, right?

It used to be that clients would have to search your brand out to interact, which took place mainly in a store. Then came the internet with its multitude of information and it became easier than ever for people to interact with many brands at one time, and for those brands to talk back. Retargeting ads take that conversation one step further, by allowing the company to continue the conversation with the user and know to which type of person they are speaking to.

Because of all of this, retargeting ads and campaigns are highly-targeted, extremely efficient, and can be relied on to speak to the perfect audience virtually every time.

But as with everything else, there’s a right way and wrong way to do it and retargeting ads are no exception.